Issue 3

During my time spent within the borders of the Angelic Union, I saw many horrific things. “Heretics” hung from gallows in front of their night churches, the slaughter of other groups of refugees and defectors from across the Midwest, public blood-sports between lower classes, and many other sights. My group of refugees from the Monarch of Detroit were lucky to be offered sanctuary by a particularly liberal priest, or “apparatchik,” who gave us a small village to stay in. I am choosing to leave them anonymous out of fear for their safety, as I have seen what the citizens of the Angelic Union do to the people they consider heretics. We had a few shadow mages with us who were able to shield our small village from the prying eyes of the murderous populace, which is why our little group managed to survive when so many others were conscripted or slaughtered. We built a simple life there, in that shrouded valley, but it was a life, an honest one. We farmed for our own food, taught our own children what we knew. Some of us were able to leave, on occasion, and blend in, even if they had to avoid the thought-thieves that could identify their lack of conformity.

The leader of the Angelic Union, a man named High Priest Samiel, is a cruel and sadistic individual. I have personally witnessed him executing 12 people at once with a fog of miasma, causing the victims to choke and sputter for minutes before they died. The intention was to cause pain, to “deter further heresy.” What was the crime, you ask? Not properly beating one of my fellow refugees that had been discovered before slaughtering him. This cruelty wasn’t uncommon in the Angelic Union. Their deity, whom they only call His Holy Darkness, or simply Him, commands this violence from his followers. Occasionally, they even kill each other to curry favor with their deity, to gain greater demonic power. This being they worship, His Holy Darkness is an interesting subject himself. See, most outside of the Union believe the “Angelic” part of the name is a deception, to convince people that they’re more holy than they are, but this is not in fact the case. Most, if not all of the loyal believers in the Angelic Union believe that they follow an angel, not a demon. My research on the subject indicates that they believe they follow an angel by the name of Iconolath. The “Angelic” part of the angelic union is a delusion, as opposed to a deception.